I have a beautiful hummer and his mate visit my garden several times a day, buzzing near me as I putter in the garden. I have a purple iochroma, which is nearly 9 ft. tall, that is a favorite nectar stop for them. I grabbed our other camera with a more powerful lens yesterday and captured a series of shots.

Here is the male, he sat on this branch for several minutes just softly chattering.

That looks like a Calliope (sp?) hummer. Smallest of all the hummers, easy to spot because the male's throat is broken lines of red versus a solid red like a ruby throated or broadtailed.

I've heard a hummer twice now in my vicinity in the past week, I have 2 feeders, but nothing spotted yet (then again, I'm not home most of the day, either). Last year, I did have a little girl who would take a sip from my hyssops on a regular basis (the hummer feeder wasn't working like they like it.. or had too many mud wasps on it).

My mom, who's living right now in the southern NM mountains used to put out 7 feeders that would be attached to 2-liter bottles (big coke bottles) and we would have to fill them up twice a day. I figured that there would be between 75-200 hummers at any given point (yes, seventy-five to two-HUNDRED). They would wipe out those bottles within 2 hours of me filling them up (this is when I was a teenager). Each feeder had 8 feeding points and, as I'm tilting the bottle from upside down to right-side-up, I would have hummers landing on my fingers drinking and there would be a line waiting. I'd usually get covered in hummer poo (red liquid) pretty quick. We had Broadtails, ruby throated, calliopes, and rufus. Loved the rufus hummers.. so striking in their hot orange feathers! Never ever saw a violet hummer, much to my dismay. Mom's got video somewhere (using our giant old Curtis Mathus VHS camcorder) of the HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM sound and watching them all flit here, there, & everywhere. Perhaps I can get her to find it so I can get that vid digitized.. that would be so cool.

That must have been a stunning sight!
My brother is a birder and made a trip to Ecuador, he captured some stunning hummers there! Here's his Picasa album of some hummers, best viewed as a Slideshow to see the details. (you can control speed or set to manual).http://picasaweb.google.com/david.icterus/EcuadorAmazingHumm...

OK, Anna's are another one we never did get in our parts of the world, so that's not one I really researched. I just remember these teensy weensy itty-bitty birds who'd take on a rufus who was almost twice their size to make sure that they got their chance at the feeders. And when I saw the broken lines on the throat, that's what I thought they were. Mea culpa!

Update: I have hummers! YAY! I know of at least 3 - I could hear 1 chittering and two were going to my feeders. In fact, I got "buzzed" yesterday evening as I was working in one of the flower beds and happen to be wearing a red shirt. Birdie got within about 2 feet of me.. I could have reached out & touched it if he stayed still long enough. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll try & get pictures (I didn't have my camera this weekend, not that it mattered as it rained all 3 days).

I was just outside at the edge of my tiny woodland hand watering with the hose. This tiny little girl humming bird came right up to my face. She kept turning and looking at the water, then she would turn and look at me. She did this about 4 time before I realized she wanted me to hold the hose still. Once I did she went right over the the spray of water. I think she was looking for insects that the water was causing to come up. What a wonderful few minutes that was.

Love those little buggers.
I use to have one come sip water from the misty stream coming from my hose
in the early evening when i was making my rounds watering the container plants and refilling my bird bathes.